Automation for goods and services has reached record levels in society. Examples are everywhere from online banking and purchasing to a wide-range of devices and physical appliances that include computing and networking capabilities, which were just wishful dreams only a decade ago. For the most part, these advances have occurred because of breakthroughs in electronics and wireless communications, which have allowed complex processing and network connectivity to be achieved in the smallest of physical devices, such as a smart phone or other handheld computing devices, for relatively small cost and effort.
One business process that has not advanced to any significant degree is onsite guest service in the restaurant/entertainment industry. True, consumers can pre-order online, make reservations online, view menus online, and the like; but, the onsite physical experience associated with the meal has not advanced to any significant degree. The most significant advancement appears to be the use of portable handheld devices to take orders from customers at entertainment/sporting events or within a restaurant.
One area that has experienced almost no automation is that associated with printing customer receipts and/or checks at restaurants. Printing a restaurant guest check from a handheld wireless computer is often difficult for a variety of reasons, one of them being that the association between a specific handheld and a specific printer is problematic. Existing solutions generally require that a mobile printer, used in tandem with a given handheld, is “paired” with that handheld by the end-user; that a fixed-position printer is logically assigned to a handheld as a matter of administrator system configuration; or that an end-user manually selects a printer for each print job using software running on the handheld computer. None of these approaches are ideal. Mobile printers are expensive to buy and maintain; they are bulky for wait staff to carry; they can take away from restaurant ambiance; and the process of “pairing” them to specific handhelds can be cumbersome and error prone. Logically assigning particular handhelds to specific fixed-position printers can be difficult to administer and is often insufficiently flexible.
Moreover, logically assigning each specific print job to a particular printer negatively impacts speed-of-service and is frustrating for end users and customers they serve.
Of course, if a handheld has its own printing device, then printing may not be much of an issue, such as a car rental check-in facility. However, poor ergonomics and other often insurmountable issues are present as such devices are bulky, expensive, and difficult to maintain with ink and paper. Most restaurants are not apt to change over to these devices when margins for the business are low to begin with. Furthermore, tasking a waiter with changing ink and paper in these devices during a rush time may in and of itself make using such devices impractical for the restaurant industry.